Kieran McKenna has unquestionably justified his appointment by leading Ipswich Town back to the Premier League for the first time in 22 years. The Northern Irishman didn’t inherit a team expected to make it to the top. When he took charge, Ipswich was in their third season in League One, closer to the relegation zone than the playoff spots.
In his first full campaign, McKenna secured automatic promotion back to the Championship. After his team defeated Huddersfield Town 2-0 and finished second with 96 points, he became only the fifth manager to lead a team from the third tier to the Premier League in consecutive seasons and the first to do so in 12 years.
McKenna’s achievement is even more impressive considering Ipswich spent only £4 million on new signings, while Leicester, Leeds, and Southampton benefited from the Premier League’s generous parachute payments.
Not bad for someone who had never been a senior team head coach before and had to abandon his dream of becoming a professional footballer due to injuries, opting instead to study sports science at university.
Less than three years after leaving Manchester United, the club he supported growing up in Northern Ireland and where he spent five years, McKenna will return to Old Trafford next season as the head coach of an opposing team.
Ipswich is a historic club, having won the First Division title in 1962 under future England World Cup-winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey. The “Tractor Boys” enjoyed another golden era under Sir Bobby Robson, winning the FA Cup in 1978, finishing second in the league in consecutive years, and lifting the UEFA Cup, their only European trophy, in 1981.
But Ipswich fell on hard times after being relegated from the Premier League in 2002 when a hotly contested Ruud van Nistelrooy penalty dealt a final blow to their hopes. They sank to League One in April 2019, and when McKenna was appointed, he became their fourth manager in three and a half years.
He became the 19th permanent manager of Ipswich when he succeeded Paul Cook on December 16, 2021, a day after a shocking FA Cup defeat to Barrow. His first match in charge ended in a 1-1 draw with Sunderland, and by the end of the season, he had only managed a modest improvement in their league position, finishing 11th. However, the “Tractor Boys” managed to escape League One in the 2022/23 season, and if it hadn’t been for an even more brilliant campaign by Plymouth, they would have been League One champions. While Argyle barely survived this season, McKenna’s men grew stronger and will play in the Premier League next season.
After a four-year stint in League One, few would have predicted Ipswich as a candidate for automatic promotion. Indeed, Plymouth Argyle and Sheffield Wednesday, who were promoted with them, spent the season fighting for survival.
But McKenna’s team ultimately finished above Leeds and Southampton, who were backed by Premier League parachute payments along with the wealth from their years in the Premiership. Local rivals Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion, who had also recently been in the Premier League, couldn’t match McKenna’s Ipswich, which was the highest-scoring team in the league this season.
Ipswich has had several notable managers, including World Cup winner Sir Alf Ramsey, Jackie Milburn, Bill McGarry, John Lyall, George Burley, and Mick McCarthy, with many considering Sir Bobby Robson the best. However, none came close to McKenna’s win percentage of 57%, making it no surprise that he was named Championship Manager of the Season last month.
McKenna left his home in Northern Ireland at 16 to join Tottenham’s youth academy, but a persistent hip injury ended his hopes of becoming a professional, forcing him to retire at 22. He then studied sports science at Loughborough University while continuing to work with Tottenham as a youth coach.
His first group included talents like Ryan Mason, Andros Townsend, and a young Harry Kane. In 2016, he left Spurs to work at Manchester United’s academy, coaching the under-18 team.
He rose through the ranks and was chosen by Jose Mourinho in 2018 to succeed his long-time assistant Rui Faria. He worked with Mourinho for less than four months, but McKenna and Michael Carrick were retained by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
At Manchester United, McKenna focused on the team’s work without the ball, while Carrick concentrated on their play with the ball. McKenna can take some credit for Manchester United’s incredible unbeaten away run in the Premier League during the 2020/21 season.
His Ipswich team also became known for their excellent defense, recording a club record of nine clean sheets last season. This reputation carried into the Championship, even though his team conceded 57 goals this season, which was offset by scoring 92 goals.
McKenna preferred a back three in League One but switched to a four-man defense in the Championship. A constant feature was the double pivot in midfield, allowing his team to dictate and control matches.
“My principles are really, really strong and I don’t think I’ll ever abandon them,” McKenna told The Telegraph. “I believe in trying to play football in a certain way. It’s not just about playing out from the back or high pressing. I want my team to be excellent in all aspects. We spend a lot of time looking at details that may seem minor but will make us a much better team over time. I’m firm in my principles. I always want my team to be proactive, to try to dominate matches.”
Ipswich was one of the most entertaining teams in the Championship this season.
McKenna’s parents run a hotel in Northern Ireland, and he inherited their work ethic. He recalled to The Telegraph: “I was always very committed to my work. I stood out in that way. I had a passionate love for the game. I loved football, genuinely. I love training every day. Some don’t. I loved it, worked hard, probably was quite curious about the team and why we did certain things, tactical things, and then I was a good teammate. I work all the time. It would be a lie to say otherwise, and that’s my personality. If I were the club physio, I’d be the same. If I had any job, I’d be the same. From a teenage age, I’ve been obsessed with working hard at everything. My parents were the same.”
He has tried to instill the same values in his players, encouraging them to constantly think about their game. One way was to remove Sky Sports News from the club’s dining room and instead broadcast training videos to encourage players to give their best in sessions.
He has also fostered an appetite for coaching. “I have documents that have evolved over the years and then you take notes with the managers you work with and what you see. You document your sessions, training, your meetings. I have quite large databases and have all my training sessions from the moment I became a youth team coach at Tottenham. I have a set of sessions I can refer back to.”
The key question is whether McKenna can build on his remarkable early success. Having done the hard work to bring Ipswich back to the Premier League, Kieran McKenna will undoubtedly be eager to complete the journey with them and try to keep them in the Premier League. He has proven himself as a manager to watch very closely.
